Waltham High football team eyes quick response to opening loss

Waltham High football coach John Bourque said his players and staff didn’t take last Thursday’s 12-7, season-opening loss to Newton North well. And that’s a good thing.

Scott Souza

Waltham High football coach John Bourque said his players and staff didn’t take last Thursday’s 12-7, season-opening loss to Newton North well.

And that’s a good thing.

"It was tough for everybody," said Bourque following a practice this week. "And if it wasn’t that would be a whole other problem. If it was, ‘oh well,’ that’s not OK. When you compete, you want to do the best you can. You want to be physical, play with intensity and emotion, and when you come in second place it wears on you. You don’t sleep well that night.

"All you can do is pick up and move forward. We’re going to learn from our mistakes. We’re going to build on the positive things that we did. We’re going to work to get better."

That work began in earnest with a long and conditioning-heavy practice on Tuesday, and will continue Friday night in Framingham when the Hawks travel to face the Bay State Conference opponent. Junior Moses Holloway will likely get the start at quarterback for the Hawks after Bourque said he was "not confident" senior starter Dana Parello would be ready to go after suffering a knee injury in the second series of the opener.

Holloway came off the bench and moved the Hawks down the field for a 16-play, 65-yard drive, which ended in a missed field goal, after Parello went down. But Waltham was slow to recover from the disruption of losing its starting quarterback overall as the Hawks found the end zone just once.

"I think, confidence-wise, certainly it’s a blow," Bourque said of seeing a two-year starter at quarterback go out so early in a game. "Mo went in and did the best he could in the time he had to practice. He was nursing a turf toe so his time in practice was limited coming into this game. Mo’s a competitor. He’s certainly capable. But, like anybody else, a lack of reps in practice is going to hurt you in that position."

Bourque said he expects Holloway, who lined up at running back at times early in the opener, to be more comfortable if called upon this week.

"With the amount of reps he’s getting this week," the coach said, "you’ll see a different kid in this game."

Despite losing Parello for the night, the Hawks had a lead late in the opener after senior back Kens Morantus burst 60 yards for a touchdown with 5:37 left in the third quarter. The Tigers made a big play on junior DeVaughn White’s scoop-and-score touchdown after senior Kyle Rich’s strip sack in the fourth quarter for the 12-7 lead with five minutes left on the clock.

The Hawks then had a chance for a miracle comeback in the closing seconds when Holloway moved the team from its 14 deep into North territory in less than two minutes without the benefit of any timeouts. But a long pass to senior Brendan Bonadio that would have given the Hawks one shot at the end zone from about the 10 with 12 seconds left in the game was curbed with a block-in-the-back penalty on the after-the-catch run that pushed the ball back to the North 32. The Tigers then intercepted Waltham’s final gasp near the goal line.

"This is a big week for us to bounce back," he said. "I’m interested – as well as, I think, the community is interested – in how we’re going to bounce back, whether we’re going to bounce back. It should be a good game. I’m certainly looking forward to it."

Framingham, which lost a 40-0 game to Franklin in the season opener, is coming off a bye. The teams have little history against each other, but Bourque said they share a lot of looks on the field.

"They run a very similar offense to us," he said. "They have a pretty good running back and a QB who likes to throw the ball. They’re a wide-open offense. Defensively, they’ve got some pretty big guys and they are very well-coached over there. It should be a good match."

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